There are lots of questions related to stress, and I’m going to try and answer most of them, and help you realize what is stress, the effects of stress and what causes stress. Stress can be both good and bad for you, well, mostly bad, but there is a good side to it as well.

What is stress?

Stress is the way that your body responds to pressure from the outside. Every time people are interacting with the outside world and this interaction puts pressure on their body or mind chemicals are released into the blood, which give more energy and strength.

Ok, so what is stress? Well, it’s a defense mechanism of your body triggered by any kind of pressure from the outside world.

How Does Stress Affect People?

Now that you know what stress is, you might want to know what it does to your body and mind. Well, as I said before, there is good stress and bad stress, and the best way to differentiate these 2 types is by quantity.

Stress prevents boredom and acts like an energizer. Any stress is good for you as long as it is on a low level, and as the stress level becomes higher and higher the body and mind become overwhelmed, leading to exhaustion.

Stress symptoms

After reading about what is stress, and how does it affect you, I figured that you are curious to know the symptoms of stress.

When you are stressed at any level, your heart speeds up and your blood flow to your brain and muscles increases up 400%. Also, the digestion stops so that is doesn’t use precious energy that might be needed  for something vital.

One other important symptom is that you breathe faster, to bring more oxygen to your muscles, so that they can sustain your body’s effort for a longer period of time.

After reading the short description above you might think that I am talking about fear, but what you don’t know is that fear triggers stress, a particular type of stress called “Survival Stress”.

And this particular type of stress is good for you even on high levels because it might keep you out of harm’s way or even save your life.

 

Stress Management

Now that you have an idea about what is stress I’ll try and explain a few things about stress management, and how to avoid chronic stress.

The first thing you should do when you feel that the stress levels are too high is to start some breathing exercises, which are most effective if you also take your mind in a calm peaceful place.

Another great stress reliever is PMR or Progressive Muscle Relaxation, which helps you release tension from your stressed body and, just like the breathing exercises, can be done in virtually any place.

Both of the techniques above can be combined with aromatherapy to obtain the best results.

Feel free to share your opinion on what is stress and whether it is good for you or not by posting a comment below.

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